Elon Musk shut down Starlink over Crimea to prevent Ukrainian drone attack, says CNN

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, reportedly issued covert instructions to his engineers to disable the Starlink satellite network over Russian-occupied Crimea last year to thwart a potential attack by Ukraine on the Russian military fleet, according to CNN on Sept. 7, citing an excerpt from a new biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson.

According to the book, Ukrainian underwater drones lost their communication capabilities as they approached the Russian fleet, eventually drifting ashore.

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Isaacson writes that Musk’s decision “was driven by an acute fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons.”

Musk expressed concerns about a “mini-Pearl Harbor,” as he put it, after discussions with high-ranking Russian officials.

“Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars. It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes,” Musk told the biographer.

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Following this, Musk spoke on the phone with key figures including Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Russian ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov.

Meanwhile, the book also highlights a plea from Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, who implored Musk to restore the Starling signal.

“I just want you – a person who changes the world through technology – to know this,” Fedorov wrote.

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In response, Musk expressed admiration but declined to reactivate Starlink near Crimea, citing concerns that Ukraine’s actions were “going too far and inviting strategic defeat.”

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